Monday, 15 March 2010

Country`s second largest city Mwanza is cleanest

From The Guardian on Sunday, Dar es SalaamBy Lucas Liganga

“By all standards Mwanza City is a clean city,” says Said Hamad Kindinda, a shoe shiner along Kenyatta road whose small business joint opposite New Mwanza Hotel is a rendezvous for politicians, football fans and city rumour mongers.

But Kindinda, a native of Kilwa District in Lindi Region, frowns at the fact that some residents in the city of 850,000 people (but unofficial population count puts the Mwanza city population slightly over one million) still do not know what cleanliness means.

“The other day a senior official with the Mwanza City Council bought a recharge voucher for his mobile phone, scratched it, recharged his phone and threw away the used voucher ignoring a nearby litter bin,” says the shoeshine.

He adds: “We told him point blank to pick up the used voucher. The official felt ashamed of what he had done, picked up the voucher and dropped it in a nearby litter bin.”